Blaaaaaaaarrrrggggggggghhhh......

Who doesn't love zombies? It's a wonderful little subgenre of fiction that gets a lot of attention (maybe more than it deserves, but that's speculation...) for what it is. The idea of zombies tends to fluctuate in popularity (much like most fads...), going from a mere glimmer on the pop culture radar to society wide obsession level. Currently, zombies are still going strong, but we definitely are waning away from the 'obsession' level (over exposure will do that...). However, we're going to talk a little about a game spawning from this undead obsession and it's called simply 'Zombies!!!'...

Game play is pretty straightforward: The game is governed by a series of die rolls and tile placement. The players are trying to make their way out of a zombie infested city to a helipad and, subsequently, safety (a la Romero-esque zombies...). The city is a tile based board that grows each turn. Each player flips up a new tile and lines up the road squares so that no road dead ends at a building. Each player is a 'shotgun guy' and must mow their way through an army of zombies, picking up equipment along the way (with die rolls, action cards and equipment cards...). Beyond moving their own piece, they must also move the zombies at the end of their turn (per another die roll...), which effective allows the player to impede (read: screw with...) the other players' progress. Each player starts with 3 health and 3 bullets; bullets aid combat rolls, health gets you out of unwinnable scraps. When your health is gone, you go back to start and halve your zombie kill collection. You can also win by having 25 zombie kills in your collection...

In contrast to the last board game I reviewed, this game is almost completely driven by luck. It has die rolls, a deck, and a random game board each time it's played; there is little in the way of classic strategy. The best you can do is try to facilitate your zombie kills and block off the other players with the new tiles and hope for cards that mess up your opponents. However, this game just drips with flavor. A mad dash to escape an undead ridden city is fantastic and is simple enough to get into. There is very little in the way of complicated rules, so once the game gets rolling after the first few turns, the kinks (if any...) are all smoothed out. Having your friends all do their best zombie impression, however, is probably the best part of the game. My favorite moment while playing Zombies!!! has to be reading from the Zombie Haiku book (find a copy, it's delightful...) with Tyson & Vicki. Awesome...

My one complaint: Zombies!!! can turn into a very long experience. If you have poor die rollers (we have a few...), killing zombies becomes problematic, which means moving towards the goal is even more problematic. Further, if you die, you often have an even bigger zombie army in your way, slowing you down further. It's definitely not Monopoly level of length, but it can get moderately tiresome if you die a lot and have trouble moving through the zombie horde. The cards are supposed to facilitate an easier time of it, but it never ends up being that way (at least not for my group...). This, in turn, makes me nervous for the multiple expansions that have been released. As fun as they look (they even released a version where you play as the zombies and try to eat all the humans [awesome...]...), I would be afraid that it would add too much length, offsetting the fun level. I could be wrong, and I certainly wouldn't pass an opportunity to try the expansions, so I would approach the other versions with subdued excitement...

Final thoughts: This is a very fun game, if a bit mindless (not a bad thing; just a label...). It won't stress your brain muscle much, but very, very enjoyable, especially with the right people. Zombies!!! is a must have for any hardcore zombie fanatic and would be a great gift for the casual gamer. If you ever want to blow holes through the undead, this'd be the way to go...

Grade: Solid B+...